A. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention relates generally to manually propelled lawn and garden caddies that are configured for hauling and storing implements useful for lawn and garden care, including long and short handled tools, refuse containers and other equipment and materials useful for working on lawns and gardens. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved lawn and garden caddy that is easy to move, able to carry multiple refuse containers and which carry the tools in an efficient and easy to use manner. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to such a lawn and garden tool caddy that can safely and effectively carry an assortment of tools for working on lawns and gardens.
B. Background
Many people desire to have attractive and healthy lawns and gardens and, as a result, much time, effort and money is spent to obtain the desired lawn and/or garden. Although many home or business owners take care of their own lawns and gardens, a significant number of people hire lawn maintenance workers to take care of all or at least a portion of their lawns and/or gardens (hereinafter, collectively professional and non-professional persons who work on lawns and gardens are referred to as “lawn care workers”). It is well known that many different types of tools and other implements are available and necessary to allow the lawn care worker to properly and efficiently take care of the lawn or garden. For purposes of this disclosure, the term “implements” includes various long and short handled tools, various containers, gloves, water jugs and other equipment and materials used in lawn and garden care. More specifically, the term “implements” includes, but is not limited to, long handled tools such as rakes, shovels, hoes, edgers, picks and the like, short handled tools such as pruning shears, hand trowels, hand cultivators, small shovels and the like, and containers such as trash cans and the like which are used for hauling soil, plants and other materials to the work site and refuse and trash away from the work site. In addition to implements, the typical lawn care worker will often utilize seeds, fertilizers, various chemicals and other materials to assist him or her with taking care of the lawn or garden (collectively, these and other such materials are referred to generally as “lawn care materials”).
Although most people obtain significant enjoyment from working on lawns and gardens, a well known problem with such work is the need to store and transport the implements and materials needed to properly and efficiently work on the lawn or garden. The variety of shapes and sizes of the implements needed or useful for working on lawns and gardens makes them difficult to store and carry. Although many people have areas of the garage or a storage shed set aside or adapted for storing their lawn and garden implements, these implements still tend to be haphazardly stored. For instance, it is common to merely store the long and short handled tools in one of the open containers and/or a wheel barrow or to hang them on various hooks placed on walls in the storage area. These storage “solutions” for lawn and garden care implements have problems with being able to safely and effectively (meaning keeping them relatively accessible) store without damaging the implements and/or other items in the storage area. In addition, once they are carried to the work site the long and short handled tools must be emptied onto the ground so that the container can be used, which then makes the container unuseable for moving the implements to a new location. On the other hand, loosely carrying a number of different sized and shaped lawn and garden care implements to the work site where they are needed or may be needed presents significant difficulty for most people. As a result, the typical lawn care worker will only carry a few selected implements at one time and either make an educated guess which implements will be needed or make several trips to carry all those that may be needed. Needless to say, lawn and garden work is generally not done in a single, fixed location. For instance, the typical lawn care worker will at least need to move around the lawn or garden of a single home, business or other location and, in the case of professional lawn care workers, will need to move from one lawn to another.
A number of yard carts and caddies exist for assisting the lawn care worker with the storage and transport of the implements necessary to properly take care of a lawn or garden. One such lawn cart is known as the Garden Rover. The Garden Rover has an upstanding portion with multiple slots for inserting the handle end of long handled tools, two rear-mounted wheels for mobility, a forward rack portion having a vinyl/fabric pouch for holding short handled tools and loose materials and a platform for carrying a container. A handle portion allows the user to tilt the Garden Rover on its wheels, like a hand truck, so that it may be rolled from one place to another. One particular problem with the Garden Rover, and like apparatuses, is that the ends of the long handled tools that are the most dangerous (i.e., the ends having the rake tines, hoe blade, shovel blade and etc.) are facing upwards and, as a result, are tilted toward the user when moving the Garden Rover. In addition, the tools in the slots tend to move around relatively freely and the platform is suited for carrying only one container, which for many lawn care workers is insufficient to meet their needs.
Various lawn and garden tool carts and caddies are also described in several United States patents. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,865 to Yacobi describes a tool holder that is also configured like a hand truck but has a tool holder compartment with multiple gripping devices suitable for gripping the handle of long handled tools so that the working end is down on the cart base. This tool holder does not have room for refuse containers or a mechanism to conveniently store small hand tools. U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,467 to Becca describes a hand truck type of trash can caddy for carrying a trash can. This caddy has a relatively complicated spring-loaded hook assembly for grasping the peripheral rim of a trash can container and trash can lid. U.S. Pat. No. 4,350,366 to Helms describes a lawn and garden cart having a bottom storage box, a tool holder mechanism comprised of multiple holes for inserting the handle end of long handled tools and a trash bag bracket for removably holding a trash bag. U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,748 to Ratcliff describes a lawn and garden cart that has a platform mounted on four wheels, an upstanding portion having multiple holes for holding the handle ends of long handled tools and a circular bracket for holding trash bags. Like the Garden Rover, the Helms and Ratcliff patents carry the long handled tools in a manner that could cause the sharp and relatively dangerous ends of the tools to hit the lawn care worker in the upper body and/or face.
Although the above-mentioned carts and caddies do provide apparatuses for storing and carrying lawn and garden implements, at least to some degree, the limitations and drawbacks associated with these carts/caddies have somewhat limited their full acceptance and use. What is needed, therefore, is an improved lawn and garden implement caddy that is configured to store and carry a variety of different sized and shaped lawn implements, including long and short handled tools, refuse containers and other equipment and materials needed or useful for lawn and garden care. The preferred lawn and garden implement caddy should be relatively inexpensive to make, easy to use, adaptable for many different types of implements and able to store and transport the implements in a manner that does not endanger the lawn care worker. Ideally, the components for the lawn and garden caddy should facilitate easy movement of the implements and not be easily damaged by regular use or susceptible to corrosion and other problems associated with lawn and garden care.